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ESXi 8.0.3 fail creating datastore on iSCSI LUN on PetaSAN

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I was hoping to solve this issue by upgrading PetaSAN to the latest 3.3.0 version, but unfortunately it was not the case. 🙁

I'm experiencing issues when attempting to create VMFS datastores on iSCSI LUNs provisioned by PetaSAN (RBD, replicated pool) using ESXi 8.0.3. The same LUNs can be successfully formatted and used as datastores on ESXi 6.7 hosts, but fail consistently on ESXi 8.0.3 hosts, and this happens on two different PetaSAN 3.3.0 clusters (it happened also with version 3.2.1).  Tried different LUN sizes (80GB to 2TB). The Error shown during datastore creation is:

Cannot change the host configuration.
Failed to update disk partitions for /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.6001405dafc5a1200017000000000000

Disk geometry on ESXi 8.0.3 is reported as:

partedUtil getptbl → unknown
Size: 4294967297 sectors (2TB + 512B), invalid geometry

VAAI status on ESXi 8.0.3:

ATS Status: supported
Clone Status: supported
Zero Status: supported
Delete Status: unsupported

I got some hint saying that this could be due to the iSCSI target implementation in PetaSAN, specifically related to:

  • Handling of SCSI-3 Persistent Reservations

  • INQUIRY, REPORT LUNS, and READ CAPACITY command responses

  • Disk geometry returned for RBD-backed LUNs (e.g., 2^32+1 sectors → invalid)

 

Is this analysis true ? Is there a way to make ESXi 8.0 work with PetaSAN ?

Thanks and bye,  Ste

we have users running without version 8  problem.

can you try setting Fast-diff on the disks and setting the drives as active/passive on vmware side and test.

Ok i created a new iscsi disk, with both Trim/Discard and fast-diff enabled, here is the check:

root@petaIBIS01:~# rbd info image-00006 -p Solo_su_HDD
rbd image 'image-00006':
size 1 TiB in 262144 objects
order 22 (4 MiB objects)
snapshot_count: 0
id: 6bc986e6eef722
block_name_prefix: rbd_data.6bc986e6eef722
format: 2
features: layering, exclusive-lock, object-map, fast-diff      <<<------
op_features:
flags:
create_timestamp: Sat Mar 29 16:34:39 2025
access_timestamp: Sat Mar 29 16:34:39 2025
modify_timestamp: Sat Mar 29 16:34:39 2025

then tried both MRU (the already configured default option) and fixed multipathing (also tried with both paths available), but i always get the error

Cannot change the host configuration. Failed to update disk partitions for /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.60014053f19b7ff00006000000000000.

I checked also all the advanced option of the iSCSI software adapter of the ESXi hosts, and they are exactly the same for ESXi 6.7 and 8.0.3.

What could be the problem ?

We will try to test v 8.0.3 ourselves, probably within the coming month. as i understand we have user running on version 8 with no issues.

We had no issues with VMWare 8.0.3 iSCSI datastores, we tested

VMware-VCSA-all-8.0.3-24322831.iso
VMware-VMvisor-Installer-8.0U3c-24414501.x86_64.iso

That's very weird, I'm using the same vCenter version and just a bit newer version than yours:

vCenter Details: Version: 8.0.3 Build: 24322831
Hypervisor: VMware ESXi, 8.0.3, 24585383

Anyway i have an open ticket with VMWare/Broadcom support, but my impression is they are floundering, groping in the dark...

PS: looking better at your version, maybe you used a Dell customized ISO image ? Because this might be a significant difference, i started from official VMWare image and it could be some missing/bad drivers... I'll try to reinstall at least one node and check

 

Unbelievable ! I completely reinstalled one host from image "VMware-VMvisor-Installer-8.0.0.update03-24414501.x86_64-Dell_Customized-A03.iso", so now i have exactly your test setup, but i'm still getting this nasty error !

My server have TPM 2.0 enabled, do you have it too ? I have really no idea about where to look, esx hosts are brand new and just installed, everything is clean...

We are not using the Dell custom image.

We tested datastore creation using vcenter client as well as directly with esx client both with no issues. Are you getting an error in both ? are you able to ping the iscsi paths from esxi ? are you able to dynamic discover the iqn ? to rule out size issues, have you tried different disk sizes (we tried a couple from 100GB to 1 TB)

Yes, i get an error from both the vCenter web client (Cannot change the host configuration. Failed to update disk partitions for /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.60014053f19b7ff00006000000000000) and the ESX host client (Failed to create VMFS datastore prova - Failed to update disk partitions for /vmfs/devices/disks/naa.60014053f19b7ff00006000000000000).

I can successfully ping all iSCSI devices on the storage VLAN. All target are immediately discovered using "Dynamic discovery" and automatically added to the static targets too.

I tried LUNs with 80GB, 100GB, 1 TB, 2TB, 5TB, all with the same result. Either using "all the available space" or leaving some space unallocated. No difference.

But in the download section of Broadcom site i didn't find the ISO of exactly your version, the latest is "VMware-VMvisor-Installer-8.0U3-24022510.x86_64.iso(605.63 MB) Build Number: 24022510" . Only a Dell customized iso had that version.

I don't know if the TPM module can play a role in this issue...

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